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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26555641">Elysian Fields</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/EridanAbbpora/pseuds/EridanAbbpora'>EridanAbbpora</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Borderlands (Video Games)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Background Jack/Nisha, F/M, Suffering, dying and being dead</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 08:54:02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,124</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26555641</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/EridanAbbpora/pseuds/EridanAbbpora</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Immediately following the BL2 fight with the Sheriff of Lynchwood, a grievously wounded Nisha Kadam comes face to face with some of the ghosts of her past.</p>
<p>Bit of an angstfest, bit of a sadstuck. I hope this tickles the fancy of someone other than me, lol.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Nisha/Wilhelm (Borderlands)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Elysian Fields</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She hadn’t expected it to hurt as much as it did. When she had just come to, way back when (ten minutes prior), she’d even allowed herself a small chuckle at their ineptitude. Lilith’s vault hunter dogs couldn’t even kill one woman? Of course, Nisha Kadam was no ordinary woman. Everyone had always told her she was a force of nature. She sure as hell wasn’t about to let the moniker down now.</p>
<p>Admittedly, she hadn’t known where she’d been trying to get to when she’d set out. If anyone were to ask her, she sure as hell wouldn’t admit how long it took her to notice the glint of an ECHO device’s screen, lying among the rubble and the blood in the sand. Wasn’t even sure if it was hers. She didn’t really care, at that point.</p>
<p>That short chuckle, she now knew, had no place coming out of her lungs like it had. Here she was, dragging her body through the sun-bleached sand of her own piece of heaven, her Lynchwood. It was proving to be, well, a real bitch. Maybe she was just getting up there in years, unsure suddenly of just how many birthdays had come and gone since she’d met Jack. Since all this started. But, fuck, she could have sworn she’d been hurt more, had more dealt to her, and kept going. As it was, she didn’t know if she could keep up this pace.</p>
<p>She gritted her teeth, straining to once again pull herself forward. All she needed to do was get to that ECHO device, and radio Jack. He’d help her, she was sure.</p>
<p>She’d never heard Lynchwood so quiet before. The rustle of the tall grasses and the shrieking of the circling rakk the only accompaniment to her quiet whimpering. If she was in the mood, she was sure she’d’ve laughed, to find her slice of heaven to be more of a ghost town.</p>
<p>“Fitting. A ghost town for a relic like yourself.”<br/>
It startled her to hear that voice, especially now. Through the kicked up dust, she could almost make out a figure. Stepping out of the cloud, Wilhelm made himself visible. He held out a hand to her, squatting low and close to her. “Come on, I’ll take you from here.”<br/>
Tempted as she was to take that hand, and god did she want to, something in her knew that this would likely be the last thing she’d do in this life. She spat at his feet, spittle and blood, and he harrumphed at her.</p>
<p>“Well, that’s not very nice, Nisha.” He chuckled, put his hands on his knees. “Still so stubborn, huh?”</p>
<p>“Yeah. And you’re still dead.” She didn’t know why she hadn’t realized it before. Normally she knew it so well. Nisha had, after all, been one of the only ones who had heard the news, had cared enough to ask after him. And, unknown to most, had driven out there to put what remained of Wilhelm into the ground. </p>
<p>
  <i>It hadn’t been much, but it was probably proportional to the amount of him she’d been able to collect. She wasn’t sure if he’d been religious at all, though she vaguely remembered rumblings about some... almighty robot policeman? She took off her hat, shook her head at him. Crazy old bastard. She wondered what had been going through his head then. To take on a fight he no doubt knew he’d lose. He wasn’t what he used to be, that was for sure, when he’d boarded that train, heading for his near-certain doom. She cursed his name. He’d been one of the only people she had left, who she’d called a friend, and maybe... no. She shook it away. There was a man dead before her and she was still entertaining her little fantasies.<br/>
“Wil, I know you can’t hear me, on account of you bein’ dead. But I’ve put your remains into this hole in the ground, and I guess... I guess I hope you rest easy from here on out. You were a stupid old man, and I’ll be sure to miss tellin’ you that on the constant.” She made sure to bite back the rest of her eulogy. Told herself she wouldn’t be caught dead crying out here in the wastes. And she didn’t. Not then. At the moment she had a cybernetic hand to prop up and position into a rude little gesture.</i>
</p>
<p>When she left her endtime reverie, he was gone. Faded into dust and sand, like we was never there at all. She knew he probably hadn’t been there in the first place, unless he’d gotten really fucking good at stage magic. How dare he distract her. Come to tempt her. No matter; the daydream had taken her mind off of some of the pain, which was starting to resurface as she kept crawling, kept dragging herself towards the ECHO device. She welcomed the quiet for a moment. She didn’t want anyone, spectre or otherwise, to see her in this state of indignity.</p>
<p>“What a waste.” </p>
<p>Nisha could have laughed at the perfect setup she seemed to have created, but felt more like screaming. She looked around, unable to match the voice to any face she knew.<br/>
“Ruined my end for the sake of a man, and for what? You won’t even be around to see his plans completed.”<br/>
She needed to really, seriously think about who this woman was. Obviously it was someone she knew. Right? Who did she know that had a... brassy blonde streak running through her hair? Oh christ.</p>
<p>“Don’t ignore me, lawbringer. I can make sure you’ll meet your death quicker than this.”</p>
<p>Nisha rolled her eyes. Yeah right. Obviously she was just seeing ghosts, and she was pretty sure ghosts couldn’t kill you. They could sure as hell try, though. </p>
<p>She was interrupted in her ignorance by a boot on her outstretched forearm, which, it surprised her to find, hurt a hell of a lot. She gritted her teeth. She wasn’t about to show any more weakness to this woman, real or not.</p>
<p>“I thought we killed your scrawny ass way back on Elpis. Just like you to show up at the last minute for yet another last hurrah, you wretched bitch.” She was pretty confident that it sounded cool and tough, even through the obvious strain in her voice. “I don’t need to justify myself to you. You’re the bad guy, and we’re the good guys. How many people did we save from your crackpot little plan? We’re the —-“</p>
<p>“Heroes?” Zarpedon laughed, interrupting her spiel. “You can’t honestly pretend you cared a lick about those people. You were only in it for yourself, and your own sick sense of pleasure. Has being with Jack deluded you that much, Nisha? You don’t even know who you are anymore?”</p>
<p>The gunslinger fell silent, considering this. Surely, surely she could name one or two people they saved up on that moon. Wh... what was the name of that girl, that mechanic? Athena’s girlfriend... Sprocket? Janet Sprocket? That seemed right. As for who Nisha was, well... maybe the spectre had something there. How long had it been since she’d last been out a-journey? Of course, she’d been having her fun in Lynchwood, but that was idle fun. It’d be nice to get paid again, take up some mercenary work. Though, she thought, Jack cared far too much for brand loyalty to let her work for just any old person out in the borderlands. </p>
<p>“I take it your silence right now means you know i’m right.” Said Zarpedon, impassively. “So there might be some sense in there, yet. Shame to waste it leaking out of your ears into the sand.”</p>
<p>“This is the worst near-death spirit journey i’ve ever fucking had, you know that?” The nerve of this dead bitch, Nisha thought. Why can’t a ghost just let there be a grim silence once in a while? These days, she found, ghosts were always monologuing at her for some indiscernible<br/>
reason. Unbelievable.</p>
<p>Zarpedon tapped her foot impatiently. “I can see this isn’t getting anywhere. Why don’t you just lie down in the dirt and let the rakk take you?”</p>
<p>She considered it. Not for long, but she did consider it. How many other times had she laid in the dirt and just given up, just waited for death to take her? She couldn’t think of too many notable cases. That just wasn’t really who she was, was it? Aside from that one time, when she’d heard the news of his... demise, Nisha’d never wanted to give up before. And no matter what promise or threat lay in wait on the other side of living, she wouldn’t give in so easy.</p>
<p>Zarpedon, or perhaps the echo of Zarpedon, must have finished her piece, as when Nisha continued her crawl she did so in silence. Stillness was not something she was used to, and she was hopeful she wouldn’t have to get used to it any time soon. But, strong as she was, even she had to admit she had her limits. Every drag of her body across the sand tore fresh scrapes into her, where her jeans had given way to bullets and other killing things; every claw she made at the loose earth burned, chipping her manicure and cutting up her palms. Her breathing had become heavy, her consciousness swimming. Her jaw hurt like hell from all the tooth gritting she’d been doing that day. How long had she been out there? How long crawling through the sand? She could only imagine the kind of bloody wake she was leaving behind her. The ECHO device was just within her reach now, just a few lengths away. She reached out for it, frantically pawing at its face buttons. She could feel herself starting to fade, now, but she felt almost content. She’d made it after all. Saw ghosts for nothing.</p>
<p>Either she felt nothing anymore, or she felt everything, so much she’d just ignore it. The ECHO device booted up with a chipper little beep. Thankfully, it was hers. She knew from the scorched purple case, flecked with dirt and blood and god knows what else. The cell phone charms dangling off the belt clip - a tiny cowboy hat and a little loader bot - mercifully hadn’t been lost or damaged. She’d won them from a gachapon machine on Promethea, and had felt a strange possessiveness over the little hunks of plastic from the get-go. Something about them just seemed right to her. </p>
<p>She sent off a message to Jack, not bothering to click the button to hear the playback. He’d answer her. She knew he would. When your girlfriend calls and tells you she’s been mortally wounded, left for dead, and hallucinating ghosts of her past, typically you’d at least rattle back a <i>“u ok?”</i>. That was the least he could do. Minutes ticked by, and no response from Jack. He was probably busy, right? She let out a laboured breath, there, having managed to pull herself up against a slapdash wall. Night had begun to fall, out there in the Pandoran desert. She’d forgotten, as corny as she thought it sounded - though she was pretty sure she didn’t have time to waste on being self-conscious anymore - just how nice the stars looked from this waste of a planet. They reminded her of being a kid, out on the porch with her dog, before everything else in her life got somehow worse than it already was.</p>
<p>A faint buzz came from the ECHO device in her hand, and she looked down, slowly, at the battered LED display. <i>Heard, 7:32pm.</i> She laughed, then. From a weary chuckle, to full blown, head thrown back laughter. “That bastard left me on read. Can you fucking believe that?” She leaned on his shoulder, cold as it was from death - or perhaps from his mounted turret. She wasn’t sure when Wilhelm had gotten there, but she didn’t much care. She’d... missed him greatly. She considered telling him this now, but figured somehow that he already knew. “Yeah. I can believe that.” He nodded sagely, and slowly got to his feet. “Can you stand?” He asked, his hand outstretched to her, his voice low and soft, unlike it had ever been before. At least, unlike it had been in polite company. </p>
<p>She gladly took the hand, and found that when she rose, she didn’t feel the pain anymore. But she didn’t let go of his hand. She wouldn’t, not ever again. “Come on, cowgirl,” he said, taking a step with her. “There’s lots more to see.”</p>
<p>And so forever, hand in hand, on they walked through those Elysian Fields.</p>
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